just another ex-jazz-musician/proto-rapper/Jersey-Irish-poet-actor/print-junkie/film-raptor/beat-hipster-"white Negro"-rhapsodizer/ex-hippie-punk-'60s-radical-organizer's take on all things cultural, political, spiritual & aggrandizing

Monday, January 17, 2011

RELENTLESS

I just deleted another comment from the person who has dominated the comments thread on this blog for years now. The lies he continues to promulgate are typical of the right, but so is his tactic of relentless reiteration of rightwing message-of-the-day for whatever topic comes up that they have a message for (if it's off the topics they cover, they just ignore the question, or blog post or news item, and revert to their relentless messaging).

His latest comment was accusing the last two administrations (one of the propaganda shifts the right immediately made after the obvious unpopularity and failure of the last administration (Bush/Cheney) was to include that administration in on certain topics that the right was critical of anyway, though they never demonstrated that in the voting booth while Bush/Cheney held power obviously) of not doing enough on immigration and the Mexican border, positing these as reasons for why people (especially in Arizona) have to arm themselves, mentioning the cartels and the "violence" on both sides of the the border. Not, of course, mentioning that the Mexican drug cartels get all their weapons from U.S. gun manufacturers.

As anyone with the least knowledge of gun crime statistics is aware, referring to the violence on the Mexican side of the border as anything comparable to the U.S. side is either an act of lying or the person is a victim of delusions caused, in this instance, by rightwing propaganda that ignores the reality that the border is more secure than it has ever been, and the number of illegal immigrants drastically reduced, since Obama was elected.

But nothing matters to the right except that their message of the day, on any issue, be re-stated over and over ad infinitum until we all either tune out, give in, or give up and stop voting or caring about politics.

This has been a rightwing strategy for decades now. Because rightwing Republican media experts believe—as others have pointed out as well—in science. They understand that brain science has proved that a simple and simply stated message repeated over and over again will not only eventually convince most people it's true, but it will make them feel happier too!

Democrats—liberals and moderates, including me too often—believe that reason and logic can win an argument. But reason and logic, let alone facts, can only win arguments with others who have been educated or are wired to believe in the supremacy of reason and logic based on facts. And even then not always, unfortunately.

So the main tactic of the right is relentless repetition, as in Democrats only want to "tax and spend" etc. And to reduce complex and nuanced arguments and policies to an easily repeatable and understandable slogan, whether true or not, ala "death panels" etc.

And it works! We all know that. Otherwise how could Bush/Cheney have been re-elected, or even elected in the first place, when every poll showed that a vast majority of the electorate wanted what the Democrats were actually proposing and didn't want most of what the Republicans stood for.

People continue to vote against their best interests and not even realize it. Like Tea Partyers who want the government to keep its hands off their Medicare! It's an emotional response generated by relentless repetition.

The rightwing monopolizer of the comments threads on this blog has the same effect. I know many people who either stopped reading the comments section of my posts or have stopped visiting the blog altogether because they just got worn down by this person's relentless ignoring of any factual evidence or reasonable and logical arguments and just reiterating the same rightwing ideological talking points.

That doesn't mean he doesn't sometimes say things some of us can agree with, as they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day, but if I'm doing my math correctly, that's only two minutes out of one thousand four hundred and forty, leaving one thousand, four hundred and thirty-eight times a day when it's still wrong.